Cisco Service Provider Video Chief Exits

Another senior vice president-level executive at Cisco is leaving the company, this time the head of Cisco's Service Provider Video Technology Group (SPVTG).

Enrique Rodriguez, who joined Cisco from Microsoft in 2010, is leaving the company to "pursue other opportunities," following a change in the reporting structure for key Cisco video units. Rodriguez, who was senior vice president and general manager of the SPVTG, ran the Cisco business responsible for television and video service sales to service providers.

According to his official Cisco bio, Rodriguez managed over $2 billion in revenue and had responsibility for products like Cisco's Content Delivery System, video servers and switched digital video products. He also oversaw Videoscape, the home entertainment platform Cisco unveiled at CES in January, and which it looked to bolster with the February acquisition of Inlet Technologies.

Rodriguez joined Microsoft in 2003, and in his last role there was corporate vice president in charge of Microsoft's TV, video and music businesses, including everything from Windows Media Center to Microsoft's Zune media player. Before Microsoft, Rodriguez held a number of executive positions at Thomson/RCA, where he spent about 20 years.

Rodriguez's departure was first reported by Light Reading. Cisco further confirmed that its service provider and enterprise video businesses have been combined under one executive, Marthin De Beer, senior vice president of Cisco's Emerging Business Group.

"We believe this move will spur innovation and synergies across Cisco's end-to-end video portfolio, which spans service provider, enterprise and consumer networks, and enable Cisco and our customers to introduce new video services, applications and experiences with speed and agility," said a Cisco spokesman in a statement to CRN.

Cisco, which reports fiscal fourth quarter and full-year earnings on Aug. 10, has already said it will lay off 6,500 employees, and also transfer 5,000 employees to Foxconn Technology Group following the sale of a Cisco set-top box manufacturing plant located in Juarez, Mexico.